Cornwall's Hidden History Blog
Robert ‘Bobby’ Leach was a daredevil stuntman said to hail from Cornwall. In July 1911 he became the first man, and only the second person, to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. After recovering from his injuries he became an international celebrity, travelling the world with his barrel, regaling audiences with his tales of […]
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“A man will go to the devil pretty fast in Tombstone . . . Faro, whiskey, and bad women will beat anyone.” George Parsons diary, September 1880 Tombstone is known as ‘the town too tough to die’. This is the town of Wyatt Earp and the gunfight at the OK Corral. A town of saloons […]
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Standing in the oppressive heat of the desert between Tucson and Phoenix I feel a very long way from the green, rain-soaked valleys of Cornwall. It is a vast and untamed landscape like nothing I have ever experienced before in all my travels, yet thousands of Cornish found themselves drawn here in the 19th century. […]
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After a few days in Africa’s largest city you might feel the need for a little respite. Cairo is a wonderfully vibrant, exciting and dynamic place but the pollution and the constant sound of car horns can sometimes become a little overwhelming. Imagine my delight then to hear that the city has a nature reserve […]
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Continuing my Cornish Bird’s travel adventures! They do let me out of the county sometimes! Wroclaw has been described, like so many other watery places, as the Venice of Poland. With 130 bridges connecting its twelve islands the city does seem afloat. The river Oder encircles the buoyant old town and it was its powerful […]
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Close to Budapest in Hungary is Momento Park. This unusual open air museum, a few miles outside the city, is a kind of bizarre graveyard for communist statues. These enormous bronze relics now lying amongst the dandelions, or else re-erected on plain stone plinths, have been saved. Gathered up from across Hungary, and placed here […]
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You might say that this post is a little bit overdue. When I visited the stone circles in The Gambia, West Africa however, back in 2007, I didn’t have this outlet to describe and share what I had seen. Wassu Stone Circles: Credit Richard Williams The stones circles of the Gambia and Senegal are a […]
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This spring make some time to say farewell to Saint Piran. He is preparing to make another miraculous journey. His passage from Ireland to Cornwall floating on a granite millwheel was a few hundreds years ago and when he drifted ashore on the wild Cornish coast he brought with him christianity and the secret of […]
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The city of Madrid has it’s own life force. It’s own vibrant undercurrent. I felt it in the murderous roar of the crowds inside bull fighting ring and now here in the dark of the Cafetin La Quimera I feel a pulse of it again. The scent of heritage, of passion, of showmanship and of […]
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Yes I am aware that Stonehenge is not in Cornwall. However firstly I had such a wonderful experience that I wanted to share it and secondly I could find out very little information about the proceedings before I went so I thought that anyone thinking of going another year might like to read my top tips! So this is it […]
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